Hey everyone. Hope you have had a good week. I hope you are enjoying the series. This story is divided into thirds and we are almost at the end of the second third. I am really looking forward to getting back to writing action!

Disclaimer: i do not own moonlight. I only write because i miss it.

To all who reviewed the last chapter, thank you so much. I really love hearing from you and the feedback is ever appreciated.

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Chapter 25

Hours later Robert stood upon the balcony in his room looking out confused. He had against his will, enjoyed the time he spent with the other men in the house.

It had been relaxed, traditional male bonding. Beer, TV, trash talk over the games and of course blood. It had been the like of things he would have enjoyed before turning with other males but since he had left his mortal life behind, he had not been privy to the company of other males.

He was angry with himself for enjoying it. Perhaps had he not been, he would have found a way to escape. His sire was out there waiting for him, looking for him...and he had wasted the opportunity to rejoin her.

He had sworn his loyalty and love to her. And this is how he chose to show it?

Robert was vexed with himself as he lay down in his freezer to sleep.

***

"I think that went well" Kurt said, the four boys conferring after Robert had left.

Devlin and Yano nodded in agreement while Veli remained silent, staring out the window.

"

"Veli" Yano began "i understand that he and you did not get off on the right foot but i think what was lurking beneath as you so put it when i arrived was the real Robert, he was too scared to show himself. I think we caught a glimpse of him today. His mind is very analytical; he is probably trying to adjust to the change of pace with living down here. And your way a more instinctual vampire, you're probably not the best for him to have met first brother, no offence"

Veli turned to face the trio "i hope your right. I still think there is more here than meets the eye."

Yano walked over and put a hand on his shoulder "i want you to give him a new chance, a fresh start. You know it is important to mother"

"We know he likes football" Devlin interjected "maybe it's a way to get him to open up more. When the others have all arrived we can play a game. We normally do anyway but it may really help Robert out"

Kurt looked at Veli imploringly "try Veli, please?"

Veli sighed and gave his brothers a smile "okay, a clean slate"

The others returned the smile and excused themselves to go to their freezers. Veli remained a long while after, watching the dawn come up over the grounds. He did not believe that it was coincidence that so soon after Robert appeared, these attacks started, or that all that lurked beneath was the real Robert as Yano had put it.

He needed to solve these mysteries before someone got badly hurt, especially someone close to him.

***

Elaina let a groan as Josef opened the door to the freezer. She was increasingly displeased when he lifted her from it and carried her to the bed. He turned the air conditioning up to the maximum in the room and came back over to where he had placed her, sitting next to her and stroking her cheek. Her temperature was not as high as it had been but it was still above normal.

"Elaina, i spoke to Henri" Josef whispered to her. Her eyes flicked open at his words and she watched him, her eyes silvered and bloodshot, her skin more pale than normal, giving it an almost translucent finish.

"The poison needs to burn its way out of the body. So you can't go to the freezer for the next few days, we need to keep your temperature higher than normal" he explained.

She looked at him in horror. "Please Josef" she croaked, her throat dry and burning. All of her was burning.

"My love, i can't" he whispered "Henri will be in LA by tonight. He'll help get you back up on your feet as quick as possible, but he has specifically said no freezer"

Elaina closed her eyes and tears slid from under them. The burning within her was nothing short of unbearable. She felt Josef's lips come down to kiss them away. His touch was cool and comforting and she lifted her hands drawing him to her, resting her feverish head against the exposed part of his smooth chest. Understanding, he slipped up on the bed next to her drawing her into his arms, allowing her weakened and heated body to take comfort in the cool expanse of his chest.

He felt her fevered brow against his chest and winced. He hoped Henri was right because she was burning up as they lay here. He moved his hand through her hair, comforting her back to sleep.

***

Henri raced to the airport in Rome. He had just finished tying up the business he had needed to attend to and had been planning to spend a week in France before heading to LA.

His plans had changed the second Josef had rang, Elaina by some means, had managed to get werewolf blood into her system. Henri knew it was not a nice experience firsthand but at least when it had happened to him; he had had a family of people who knew what to do around. Elaina did not have that, which was probably making the situation very scary for her.

The most worrying thing was Josef had said there was no black mark where she could have been bitten and the blood passed.

To Henri that meant she must have ingested it, meaning the poison had spread through her whole body, leaving her undoubtly burning and aching in pain. It also meant the recovery period would be longer.

He had given instructions to Josef to keep her out of the freezer and to feed her as much blood as possible. Hopefully, he would be able to come up with a plan to break the fever when he saw her.

As he pulled into the airport, he could see Josef's private plane on the runway. Clearance was immediately given and within minutes, Henri was on his way to LA.

***

Another victim.

It was all so easy.

She looked at the staked childe before her as she brushed her hair back from her face. Her eyes, returning to their blood brown colour, she smirked, her tongue searching from the last remnants of blood on her lips.

She must hurry to leave the scene. The sire and the guardian would be along soon.

She snorted as she thought of the guardian; he was a slow witted buffoon. He could not even get a sense of her, his powers weak and paled in comparison to her own. How he had lived so long was beyond her, probably because of who his sire was.

Hueilen was good at keeping a sharp eye on the young vampires of her family; the fact that Robert remained trapped away from her was privy to that fact.

Her eyes narrowed and bled silver, she cast her head back, baying to the moon. First all those years ago the council had taken her family, now they took her childe. Her anger knew no bounds, it struggled and wrestled inside her, determined to break free and destroy all in her path.

But she would have her revenge. And she would return her childe to her side.

Until then though she thought, her eyes glimmering with demonic pleasure every sire in Minnesota would know what it was like to have their fledglings lost and wanting and in danger.

Each of them would feel her pain.

***

Mick and Beth finished the exercise set they had been working on, Beth much to her surprise found herself enjoying boxing. Mick was an excellent teacher, having learnt every means of fighting dirty in the army and letting her in on the secrets.

Mick watched her stretch as he took down the punching bag. She looked so incredible in her boy shorts and figure hugging tank that he almost missed his handling of the bag and dropped it.

She turned and smiled at his clumsy attempt to catch it and he grinned back at her sheepishly, trying to play the whole thing off. He dropped the equipment into the storage area and when he returned Beth had poured them both a glass of blood.

It was the morgue stuff, all they had in the house at the moment and Mick saw Beth grimace as she swallowed it. He would really need to start thinking about changing their eating arrangements, at least enough to spare her taste buds.

"Any word from Josef?" Beth asked, breaking his thoughts.

Mick shook his head. He knew his friend had been due back last night but he had not heard from him. He had been unsurprised as he knew through Beth that Josef and Elaina had left things to be discussed until they came back.

But still...not to hear this long was unusual. Especially between them who did to certain degrees live in each other's pockets.

"I've been holding off calling but maybe i should" Mick admitted.

Beth smiled at him encouragingly. "You should. You guys need to make plans for the first two days of collaborations week at fashion week. They are the days of the shoe designers and Elaina and i have completely booked each other for the days. You go and have some good guy time"

Mick gave her a pained look "and just how many new friends do you two intend to bring home? Beth, sweetie, i think you have enough shoes"

Beth patted him on the head "silly man, a woman can never have too many shoes. Aren't you always saying a smart vampire is prepared? Well it's the same with a smart woman and her shoes!"

She placed a kiss on his cheek and left the room, her giggle floating after her spurred by the look on his face. It was one of sheer abject horror and torture; one would think she had asked him to wear the shoes.

***

So that is that for this chapter. A lot of different scenes going on. Thank you for reading and i hope you will review and tell me what you think.